XB-70 222 had undergone a night of preflight checks by flight
test ground support. Technicians and engineers were busy making last minute
checks while the big fuel trucks topped off the tanks for today’s flight. The
mission today was a photo and publicity flight with four other aircraft fitted
with General Electric Engines. At the controls for today’s flight were North
American’s Chief Test Pilot Al White and Air Force Major Carl Cross.

The XB-70 was to take off and perform a short series of
flight test cards and then meet with the other four aircraft over the ocean
just off Santa Barbara Coast line. A last look at the telemetry for all systems
GO is made with the pilots on board when completing their cockpit checkout.

The crew module was a first in bomber design to have escape
capsules for each pilot and an environmental controlled cabin that provided
shirtsleeve comfort. A part of the pre-flight check was an exercise for each
pilot to move his seat from his shirtsleeve position at the controls back into
the escape capsule and close its clamshell. A pressurized gas cylinder provided
assistance to move the seat into the capsule under high G forces. At this
position the pilot(s) could independently jettison their capsule through an
escape hatch that would be blown off as the ejection sequence began. The capsule
would automatically deploy a parachute at the proper altitude to take each one
safely to the ground.

To insure that primary data would be available in any
emergency involving capsule ejection a flight test switch had been installed on
the clamshell to turn on all data recorders when the shell was closed. [The
significance of introducing this information in this story is that although the
switch was for data purpose it would have let the Flight Test Team know which if
not both of the pilots escaped from the aircraft. Because the switch was not
activated in this incidence it left the flight team in question as to which
pilot had escaped.]

It was a balmy day; slightly overcast but clear at flight
altitude with very little turbulence. The aircraft had taken off and had been up
for over

half hour. They were now aligning their formation approach coming in from the
coast and headed for the Mojave Desert. The flight test team was at the control
center watching their assigned systems from the telemetry data coming in from
the aircraft. The Lear Jet hired for the photograph was closing in to catch the
formation of the XB-70 with two aircraft flying adjacent on each side.

The first announcement from the chase plane was that it would
be a few moments

before the procedure would begin. Joe Walker flying a F-104 was on right wing
and in tight position. His aircraft was meeting some turbulence from off the
XB-70 wing and he was trying to hold his position.

(Author's note: At the Beatty tracking station we routinely
recorded the communications channel on a Fisher tape recorder. Only moments
before the Mid-air Joe Walker officially notified mission control that he was
encountering turbulence. He further stated for the record that he opposed this
mission as it was too dangerous and had no scientific value. [The purpose of the
mission was to provide General Electric, the manufacturer of the engines for the
planes in formation, a photo for the cover of their brochures to be presented at
an upcoming shareholders' meeting] Immediately after the crash, Mr. Bill Houck,
the NASA monitor at our station, requested I give him the tape for dispatch to
NASA at Dryden.)

The F-104 Starfighter flown by Test Pilot Walker and two other
supersonic jets, one flown by Air Force Col. Joseph F. Cotton, had closed their
formation for the photo shoot when suddenly the collision occurred. Joe
Walker’s F-104 was in flames just after impact with the XB-70, both vertical
stabilizers have been sheared off of the XB-70.

Some close to the investigation of the crash believed that if
Walker got in so close as bring the tail up under the XB-70 wing, the result
would be a rapid pitch up. The reason being, the effectiveness of the F-104 tail
was neutralized and the F-104 aircraft would normally pitch up. With that, the
left wing of the F-104 struck the XB-70 wing causing the pitch and roll across
the top to continue or accelerate. Walker had not yet flown the XB-70, and was
scheduled for the next day. Consequently, he had not experienced the remarkably
rapid acceleration capabilities of the Valkyrie.

NASA's Director of Biological research (Major Roman, M.D.), who was the
investigating doctor at the site, reported that Walker's F-104 was inverted as
it passed across the top of the XB-70 and struck the XB-70 vertical tails and
that the vertical stabilizer of the XB-70 had split Walker's cockpit and
flight-helmet in half.

Having slammed across the top of the bomber's tail assembly --- damaging one
of the tail vertical stabilizers and breaking off the other --- the Starfighter
then cart wheeled and exploded into a plume of flame. XB-70 started a flat spin
shortly after collision of the F-104 because of the missing vertical stabs and
part of the wing. A hued vapor trail of JP-8 fuel spewed from the XB-70. Though
the engines are still running, the craft did not catch fire.

Without warning came the cry from Colonel Joe Cotton,
"Mid Air "Mid Air".. "You got the verticals" ...
"both the right and the left came off" ... "hold on Al you may go
into a spin"… "The B-70 is turning over on its side and starting to
spin … Bail Out Bail Out!!!".

Half dazed from an early morning arrival the flight test team
came to the edge of their seats as they saw the strip chart data recorder
spewing ink as pins shifted erratically from a normal tracking position.

"What the hell was that?" Cotton in his F-104 chase
plane begins ordering the other planes to stay clear of the area. Parts from the
XB-70 were tearing loose and twirling out as it continued to pick up speed in its
flat spin to the ground. Half the left wing had separated from the XB-70 and with
other parts falling in a funnel of debris.

Walkers plane had burst into flames behind the XB-70. Cotton
again yells, "I see no Chute Bail - Out Bail Out"!

The plane had now lost approximately 10,000 ft., and no one
had got out. Suddenly Cotton yells, "There's a chute. I see one chute;
stay clear of that wing; one chute is gong down".

Tower has been pounding the radio channel to give them the
position where the XB-70 is going in, "This is Mission Control, give us a
position of the crash site".

Finally after Joe had collected himself from the anxiety to
get the men out of the XB-70 and clear the area, he announces the expected
position of the crash site. The plane had impacted near "Three Sisters" a
few miles from Barstow, California. It was burning from the tail section with
the flames moving to the nose of the aircraft.

Al White’s ejection capsule landed a few thousand feet away from the XB-70.
Major Cross didn’t make it out of the XB-70. Al White made it but had to be
removed from the capsule and flown to the Edwards Hospital where he stayed a few
days to recover from bruises and a back injury. His butt had made a perfect
impression in the metal seat of the capsule.

It was later learned from Al what a tragedy he had gone
through. His story began when he first felt the impact of Walker’s plane roll
into the vertical stabilizers. His immediate reaction was to get his seat into
the escape capsule. This was accomplished in a matter of seconds, as training
for the escape had become a routine reaction. In closing the clam he had
accidentally tucked his fist in the hollow of his armpit and his elbow was
protruding in the path of the clamshell closure. It was tight quarters and he
struggled to free his arm from the weight of the clam hood.

He saw that Major Cross was still leaning forward in his seat
at the controls. The G forces were so high from the spin of the aircraft he was
unable to move. Something was wrong with his seat. It had not moved back to his
capsule. He had waited too long, and the G forces had built up beyond the operational ability of the seat
retraction mechanism. [It was later learned that diaphragm in the seat
retraction cylinder had ruptured under high loads created from the G forces of
the aircraft spin; this could have been eight times its normal operating range;
Cross had waited to long.]

What can I do for this guy was all Al could think of for a
few moments. The G loads from the spin were building up fast. White knew he
could not get to Major Cross to help him and if he could not get his elbow into
the capsule he would lose his arm in the ejection of the seat. During these
moments the Bomber had lost approximately 10,000 ft altitude. Forcing his closed
hand out of the armpit, he struggled and finally freed his arm with little time
left to hit the ejection switch.

The clamshell closed hard from the power of the thrust as it
lifted from the aircraft. [NO signal came through the telemetry system to
indicate Al's seat was the one that left, confusion lead to believe Cross-had
made it out.]. Al's mind was in a flurry, his thoughts were on Cross and his
own chances of being hit by the debris. He lost memory of the capsule procedure
to deploy the air bag under the capsule. This cost him his hard bounce off the
ground. The bottom of the capsule was equipped with an air bag (something like
that in a car) and it needed to be energized by the occupant to be inflated to
reduce the impact when the capsule hit the ground.

The results of the crash -- Joe Walker's F-104 Horizontal
tail shows impact and scratch marks. Walker's F 104 was the only plane that
struck the XB-70. In the flight formation the XB-70 outer wings were folded
down. Walker was using the engine inlet ramp and the wing leading edge of the
XB-70 as a reference for his position in the formation. He reportedly commented
he was getting some turbulence from the wing and was trying to hold his
position.

The horizontal stabilizer on the F-104 he was flying is
mounted at the top of the vertical stabilizer. From the evidence of the scratch
indentations of his horizontal stabilizer it had come in contact twice with the
leading edge of the XB-70 outer wing. First it touched and then made a solid
‘S’ scratch that catapulted his plane over the back of the XB-70, shearing
both the vertical stabilizers and then bouncing off the left wing of the XB-70.
His plane became an instant burning ember behind the XB-70. Amazingly the XB-70
did not burst into flames as its fuel cells were also ruptured and were losing
JP 8 in a dense fog out of the aircraft. Normal Jet fuel for the F-104 is JP-4;
much more flammable (higher combustion ratio than JP-8) and was the reason the
fuel from the XB-70 did not ignite in the air.]

What went wrong on this flight was possibly a vortex air
stream generated by the big aircraft that sucked Walkers F-104 into the wing of
the XB-70. In any case, we lost a $4 billion plane and two veteran pilots in a
mission whose purpose was to obtain a photo for a corporate brochure.

Click on images to enlarge

Special thanks to NASA and Tony Landis for the photos of the
midair and crash of the XB-70 and Joe Walker's F-104 depicted in a slide show of
the crash sequence. Also for editing hints by Don Mallick who flew with Walker
on a number of occasions, sharing cross country flights in a T-33 and flying
each other's wing in F-104s.

Carl's wife, Margaret Childers Cross, passed away ten years ago
and is buried beside him at the Forest Hills Cemetery in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Carl's mother, aged 99, passed away and was buried in Chattanooga TN on May 9,
2005. Carl and Margaret's daughters LuAnn and Karen also live in Chattanooga.
Carl has three grandchildren from his daughter, Karen. Carl also has a son Jimmy Ray Cross of Ringgold, Georgia. He is the half brother to Karen Cross and the late Luann Cross. Carl has two granddaughters Deanna and Lori Cross, and 6 great grandchildren. Lori and Patrick Bowers have 5 children together, Ellie, Joey, Frannie, Penny, and Lovie. Lori's sister Deanna has one son Gabe. Carl's sister, June and
Carl's brother Edwin (Ed) live in Cleveland, Tennessee. Carl's nephew, David
Payne lives in Escondido, California. Alan, another of Carl's nephews received
his private pilot license about 1985 and proudly wears his uncle's Air Force
wings.

1-23-2012 update by Gene and June Payne

Pneumonia took Carl's oldest daughter's life several years ago, and her request her ashes were strewn over a favorite spot of hers in the Great Smokey Mountain. There are three new additions to the family. Carl would be proud to know that he has three great grandchildren. Karen's daughter has two children -- a girl and a boy -- and son Andrew now has a daughter. They all still reside in Chattanooga.

We wish to thank Gene & June Payne, Hoyle D. Hyberger, Lori Cross-Bowers and the rest of the family for keeping
us informed about the family of our aviation brother, Maj. Carl Cross.

MEMORIAL DAY - 2004

Webmaster T.D. Barnes, in white, joined by friends, Steve Nutt
and Tim Uhlenbusch, paying respect to Joe Walker and Carl Cross with whom he
worked until that haunting day of the Midair almost 40 years ago.

Memorial constructed by Jeremy Krans and friends October 2015

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